“It is staying pretty flat for several years,” McNair told Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal while departing last week’s league meetings. McNair added that, after 2014, the cap will “gradually” increase.

Kaplan’s report also confirms that the union borrowed against future years in order to pump the cap in 2012 from as low as $113 million per team to $120.6 million per team, not much more than the $120.375 million per team in 2011. The same thing will happen in 2013, which means that gains to be realized in 2014 and beyond will have already been, to a certain extent, consumed by the players in order to drive up the numbers in 2012 and 2013.

The end result, per Kaplan, will be a total of $142.4 million per team in salary and benefits for each of the first three years of the new CBA, with modest annual increases thereafter.

Kaplan points out that, last March, the players walked away from a proposal that would have guaranteed $146 million per team in 2012, $150 million per team in 2013, and $161 million per team in 2014. (Actually, the document created by the owners in March 2011, a copy of which PFT has obtained, showed a minimum of $148 million in 2012 and $155 million in 2013.) NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith called that offer the “worst deal in the history of sports,” in part because of the gross reduction in the players’ take and in part because the formula included no portion of the league’s financial upside.

So, instead, the players eventually traded a proposal with a high floor and a low ceiling for a deal with a low floor and a high ceiling. And for now the numbers are congregating at the floor.

Demaurice Smith is in so far over his head on this. Owners were laughing in the backroom at him, and the player reps that went along and acted like they had a clue what was going on. The owners didn’t get wear they are getting outdone by amateurs like Smith and company.

So the players weren’t tricked by the owners. By the NFLPA, maybe either on purpose or because they didn’t understand the ramifications of what they signed. This is why Smith was a bad choice. Litigators aren’t necessarily good negotiators.

It looks more and more like DeMaurice Smith and the NFLPA got rolled by the owners last summer. The NFLPA should consider replacing Smith with Donald Fehr (former MLBPA director and current NHLPA executive director).

This is a classic negotiating system where one party is in way over his head. The owners knew that DeSmith’s only real strategy was to assume the owners are trying to screw his party over. So anything the owners put on the table, they know DeSmith will reject.

So what they did was open by offering DeSmith the style of deal that results in the most money to the players. This way DeSmith rejects it and pushes everything in a new direction, the owners’ direction.

Based on these numbers, the players are out approximately $640 million per year for the first 4 seasons compared with what the NFL opened with, despite these players “borrowing” from the money pool of future players.

Perhaps the numbers will change later and DeSmith will eventually have the last laugh. But at least initially it appears that the owners worked DeSmith real hard, to the tune of billions of dollars.

How is it that TV revenues along increased from 20.4 billion to 39.6 billion and the players salary cap doesn’t change? That’s BILLION!!! Why are you fans happy about the owners making more billions? It’s not like tickets prices or the price of a beer at the game is going to be reduced

So the Saints have been banking on the Salary Cap being increased with all these contract restructurings that they’ve been doing, paying the league minimum this year while promising big increases down the road with big guarantees. It’s going to cost them down the road, which is awesome.

DMS: See what had happened was, you know i mean, i figured if i insulted these owners long enough they would come around go my way of thinking. I guess Marxist principles can only be achieved through the barrel of a gun. Oops. I guess next time i got to pull out the race card and say that these millionaire players are simply fieldhands. Yea, that’s it…that’s the kind of hyperbole that gets things done.

So if the costs associated with paying players and for stadiums should remained fixed for the next couples years, does this means they won’t jack the prices up every year? Since their costs are only going to be modestly increasing, how about doing the same for the ticket prices?

Unfortunately this won’t happen and they’ll still try and be greedy as ever.

Umm….does it REALLY matter what the CBA says? Apparently Roger Goodell and the owners can change what is says anytime they want. The Last CBA had an agreement for an uncapped year in 2010, but we all know the story there. I’d like to see the part with the asterisk that references behind closed door “agreements”.

The NFL gives teams a license to print money. With a financial forecast all but guaranteed to climb, any deal that limits the ceiling is a bad deal. Smith recognized this and shot down the deal with a high floor / low ceiling. The players are taking their lumps now but as soon as the TV contracts kick in and the revenue streams keep growing, the players will benefit big time in the next few years. You Goodell lovers are too dumb to recognize Smith’s brilliance.

So, am I reading this wrong, or did the league do precisely what it is now penalizing the Cowboys and Redskins for doing. And the players have gone along with it to protect the league from any collusion claims.

Hate to say it, but I like the NFL – the owners, the players, the sport, its fans – less every year. It keeps finding new ways to let down the childhood fan in me.

Bob McNair wouldn’t know what time is was if he had a digital watch…last year he was crying “the NFL took my money but didn’t send anyone down here to help me set my team up” now he is the voice of knowledge after 10 years and a 65-95 won loss record and one trip to the playoffs in a down year for the AFC South…..hahaha dumbest of the trio on Kirby of Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest

The NFL is going down the road the NBA once went down. They’re going to saturate the market by showing games all week and they’re going to desensitize the fans with the in-fighting and criminal / insensitive behavior of the players…

NFL is just a business. We are just fans (fanatics, for those who did not know what fan was short for) that will continue to pour in our hard earned money to fund this business. They know it, and there is nothing we can do about it.

So who will they fleece the next several years to make the cap go up? I mean they BS’s the Skins and Cowboys to the tune of $46 million which they still haven’t justified…will there be more out of the blue new rules to penalize some other teams??? Oh that’s right this is to paid over the next two years when the cap is expected to be flat then it’s 2014 and all is or should be well right??? Now what if the Skins and Boys win and get that money back what does Roger “Hitler” Goodell do then???

The CBA deal is a 10 year deal I think. I’m more interested to see what kind of money is made in years 4-10 before I automatically assume D Smith is an idiot. Making less money for 3 years might be offset if they are making more money for 7 years.

Everyone who is saying that they don’t care about this and that the article was a waste of time are missing the fact that these salary cap numbers have a HUGE impact on what their team’s roster will look like in future years.

The CBA deal is a 10 year deal I think. I’m more interested to see what kind of money is made in years 4-10 before I automatically assume D Smith is an idiot. Making less money for 3 years might be offset if they are making more money for 7 years.
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Aren’t they borrowing against the cap of future years, just to get increases in this one? They are completely gambling on their future, and hoping for the big payoff. Unless the market explodes there won’t be much of an increase. De.Smith and Obama must be school mates, since they both are sacrificing future generations of money. They are giving the middle finger to the future.

So the NFL executive committee and GODell told the NFLPA to agree to the Cowboys and Skins sanctions or the cap would be 113,000 mil (which would’ve only hurt the executive committees own teams) and the cap was going to be 120,000 plus anyway? Lol….Nice going Smith. Really don’t know how the players don’t fire you after this!

The worst deal in the history of sports was when the Cowboys got a multi-Super Bowl-winning football team from the Vikings in exchange for Herschel Walker. Second worst was when the Chargers drafted Ryan Leaf over Peyton Manning. Third worst was when Mike Ditka exchanged his entire draft for Ricky Williams.

What I love that doesn’t seem to be mentioned is the timing of the news release-AFTER De Smith’s re-election. Just like the Redskins and Cowboys salary cap debacle got announced THE DAY BEFORE Free Agency opened. There’s MUCH that’s fishy in all this……

The only people that are idiots are us fans. Buying $200 jerseys, $30 hats, $300 Sunday Ticket, ect. ect. ect. While all the fat cats get fatter! I am done buying all this crap so all these greedy bastards get richer & richer!!

The players wanted the higher ceiling…that is what they wouldn’t settle on. If PFT knew how to write they would have pointed this out a bit more clearly.

The players union has seen major growth within the NFL over the past few years. With the new TV contracts, they expect even more. With that growth, and a guaranteed amount of the pie…they believe they got a better LONG TERM deal.

Which for us fans…is a good thing. Because guess what. If they didn’t feel that way…we’d be dealing with a future lockout in a few years instead of many more.

It is WAY too early to make any kind of judgment on who got the better end of this deal. Both parties made compromises. This like 80% of the stories on this site is a non-story. Please football…come back to us soon!!!

The worst deal in the history of sports was when the Cowboys got a multi-Super Bowl-winning football team from the Vikings in exchange for Herschel Walker. Second worst was when the Chargers drafted Ryan Leaf over Peyton Manning. Third worst was when Mike Ditka exchanged his entire draft for Ricky Williams.
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I agree with 1 and 3, but the Colts had the #1 pick and drafted Manning, the Chargers just settled for whomever the Colts didnt want, which ended up being Leaf

As more and more facts come to light, the more D. Smith looks to be overmatched. I’m sure the NFL will be able to get D. Smith to sellout the NFLPA again for a few more million $$$ increase to the cap in two years. D. Smith has set his price, a few million $$$ and the NFLPA will look the other way while 30 of the 32 owners collude to artificially keep salaries down. I wonder which teams will have to suck up a cap penalty to be re-distributed among the other teams in 2014?

It may end up working out for the players but minimum 4 years out of 10 is way too long a period for a ‘brilliant’ man to allow. Especially since hundreds of players Smith represents will not be in the league 5 years from now.

The NFLPA wants a level playing field for D Smith next time around and has demanded that Jim Irsay replace Robert Kraft and Bob McNair at the table. The NFL has some very smart men owning their franchises and they also have a small collection of idiots who inherited teams from their dads. D Smith was not dealing with the group that Irsay is with.

Man DeMaurice, I’ve seen trees that smarter than you. You’re screwing these guys over big time dude. With you running the show they’ll be making 1970 wages in 5 more years. You must’ve watched congress operate DEFICIT SPENDING TECHNIQUES they’ll be putting bounties on you pretty soon.